c. 1300, vertegrez, from Old French verte grez (13c.), verte de Grece (late 12c.), literally "green of Greece," from obsolete French verd, from Latin viridis (see verdure). The reason for it being called that is not known. In other languages, "green of Spain" (German grünspan, Danish spanskgrönt, Dutch spaansch-groen), from Medieval Latin viride Hispanum. Current spelling in English is from 1789. In chemistry, confined to a basic copper acetate; popularly applied to the green encrustation on copper or brass exposed to the air.

Earliest attested sense in English is now-obsolete meaning "male member, penis" (c. 1400). Modern sense is from the notion of within the verge (c. 1500, also as Anglo-French dedeinz la verge), i.e. "subject to the Lord High Steward's authority" (as symbolized by the rod of office), originally a 12-mile radius round the king's court. Sense shifted to "the outermost edge of an expanse or area." Meaning "point at which something happens" (as in on the verge of) is first attested c. 1600. "A very curious sense development." [Weekley]

early 15c., from Anglo-French and Old French veritable "true, real, truthful, valid (in law)," from verité (see verity) + -able. Probably lost mid-17c. and reborrowed or revived after 1830. Related: Veritably.

Latin, literally "truth, truthfulness," from verus "true" (from PIE root *were-o- "true, trustworthy"). Latin phrase in vino veritas (1590s in English; "in wine, truth," that is, "the truth comes out when one has been drinking") is attributed to Pliny the Elder, though there is a Greek version of it.

late 14c., from Anglo-French and Old French verite "truth, sincerity, loyalty" (12c.), from Latin veritatem (nominative veritas) "truth, truthfulness," from verus "true" (from PIE root *were-o- "true, trustworthy"). Modern French vérité, literally "truth," was borrowed into English 1966 as a term for naturalism or realism in film, etc.

"bright-red," late 14c., from Anglo-French and Old French vermail, vermeil "bright-red, scarlet, crimson" (11c. in Old French), from Late Latin vermiculus "a little worm," specifically, the cochineal insect from which crimson dyes were obtained (compare kermes), in classical Latin, "larva of an insect, grub, maggot," diminutive of vermis "worm" (from PIE root *wer- (2) "to turn, bend"). As a noun in English from 1590s.

U.S. state, 1777, based on French words for "Green Mountain," but perhaps was formed by one with limited knowledge of French, where the correct form would be Mont Vert (as in the village of Pont-de-Montvert). Related: Vermonter.

white wine flavored with aromatic herbs, 1806, from French vermouth (18c.), from German Wermuth "wormwood," from Middle High German wermuot, from Old High German wermuota (see wormwood), name of the aromatic herb formerly used in the flavoring of the liqueur.

c. 1600, "native to a country," from Latin vernaculus "domestic, native, indigenous; pertaining to home-born slaves," from verna "home-born slave, native," a word of Etruscan origin. Used in English in the sense of Latin vernacula vocabula, in reference to language. As a noun, "native speech or language of a place," from 1706.

For human speech is after all a democratic product, the creation, not of scholars and grammarians, but of unschooled and unlettered people. Scholars and men of education may cultivate and enrich it, and make it flower into the beauty of a literary language; but its rarest blooms are grafted on a wild stock, and its roots are deep-buried in the common soil. [Logan Pearsall Smith, "Words and Idioms," 1925]

fem. proper name, French Veronique, a variant of Greek Berenike (see Berenice). The popular "Saint Veronica" (not in the Roman Martyrology) traditionally was a pious woman who wiped the face of Christ when he fell carrying the cross to Calvary. The image of his face remained on the cloth, and the "veil of Veronica" has been preserved in Rome from the 8c. Her popularity rose with the propagation of the Stations of the Cross, and this connection led to the folk-etymology derivation of the name from Latin vera "true" + Greek eikon "image." Some also identified her with the woman with the issue of blood, cured by Christ, as in the East this woman was identified from an early date by the name Berenike. Hence vernicle (mid-14c.) "picture of the face of Christ," from Old French veronicle, variant of veronique "St. Veronica's cloth."

I remarked some years ago, in speaking of vers libre, that 'no vers is libre for the man who wants to do a good job.' The term, which fifty years ago had an exact meaning in relation to the French alexandrine, now means too much to mean anything at all. [T.S. Eliot, introduction to "Selected Poems of Ezra Pound," 1928]

late Old English (replacing Old English fers, an early West Germanic borrowing directly from Latin), "line or section of a psalm or canticle," later "line of poetry" (late 14c.), from Anglo-French and Old French vers "line of verse; rhyme, song," from Latin versus "a line, row, line of verse, line of writing," from PIE root *wer- (2) "to turn, bend." The metaphor is of plowing, of "turning" from one line to another (vertere = "to turn") as a plowman does.

Verse was invented as an aid to memory. Later it was preserved to increase pleasure by the spectacle of difficulty overcome. That it should still survive in dramatic art is a vestige of barbarism. [Stendhal "de l'Amour," 1822]

The English New Testament first was divided fully into verses in the Geneva version (1550s). Meaning "metrical composition" is recorded from c. 1300; as the non-repeating part of a modern song (between repetitions of the chorus) by 1918.

The Negroes say that in form their old songs usually consist in what they call "Chorus and Verses." The "chorus," a melodic refrain sung by all, opens the song; then follows a verse sung as a solo, in free recitative; the chorus is repeated; then another verse; chorus again;--and so on until the chorus, sung for the last time, ends the song. [Natalie Curtis-Burlin, "Negro Folk-Songs," 1918]